Over 8,600 Ukrainian Tourists in Egypt Evacuate to Europe

Around 8,608 Ukrainian tourists in Egypt have been evacuated to neighbouring nations around Ukraine on 36 EgyptAir flights. Due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the airspace over Ukraine has been closed to civilian flights.

It's one step of a larger plan between the Ukrainian embassy in Cairo and Egypt's foreign and tourism ministries to evacuate up to 20,000 Ukrainian tourists - most of whom were staying in Red Sea resorts - to European countries such as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, with the Egyptian government shouldering the expenses for the flights.

When the war began in late February, Ukrainian and Russian tourists who were unable to return home had their stays extended in Egyptian hotels, with the Tourism and Antiquities Fund fully footing the bill for tourists in three-star hotels.